Charges over amputation

A Dunedin company has been charged over a workplace safety
incident in which a man's hand was cut off earlier this year.

The man, who was aged 43 at the time of the accident, had his
right hand severed in June while working on machinery at
Ellis Fibre Ltd, a Kaikorai Valley company which makes
bedding products.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and
Employment (MBIE) said the company, under the name EF
Products Limited Partnership, had been charged under the
Health and Safety in Employment Act for a ''failure to take
all practicable steps to ensure the safety of an employee,
while at work''. The maximum penalty for the charge is a
$250,000 fine.

The charges were laid this month after a five-month
investigation which finished in mid-November. The spokesman
declined to comment on how Ellis Fibre Ltd had breached
health and safety standards because the matter was before the
courts.

Ellis Fibre managing director Glenn Alexander said the
company was yet to decide whether to plead guilty to the
charge and was waiting for information it had requested from
MBIE.

''Once we have that we will assess it in the new year,'' Mr
Alexander said.

Asked if he felt the company's health and safety standards
were up to standard at the time of the incident, he said:
''We had a comprehensive health and safety plan at the time
of the incident, but it's fair to say we have upgraded them
even further since.''

A week after the incident, a Department of Labour spokeswoman
said the accident qualified as a ''major'' workplace safety
incident.

She said the department, which has now become MBIE, had
worked with Ellis Fibre to ensure its machinery and machine
guarding was up to specifications.

The employee who had his hand cut off was also a professional
sculptor, and had since returned to sculpting using specially
adapted tools.